Textbook case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_of_the_children

This is part of Boris Johnson's Red Meat™ tactics. Red Meat tactics means pushing clickbait/culture war bullshit ideas that are idiotic, cruel, or non-working. The goal is to stir up fight over them.

Boris has build his career on running across rivers on the backs of alligators. He avoids being caught by scandals, lying, fraud, infidelity, abuse by throwing Red Meat to distract.